posted at 11:21 am on March 6, 2014 by Allahpundit

A total fiasco. If you missed Ed’s posts about it yesterday, make sure to read them now — especially the one in which Democrat Mark Udall wonders if the CIA monitored investigative activity by the committee with Obama’s knowledge. Quickie background: The Intel Committee’s spent $40 million investigating CIA interrogation techniques under Bush. As part of the investigation, they asked to review top-secret documents held at CIA HQ. The CIA agreed and set aside some computers for them at Langley to access the document database — and, if committee members are to be believed, then proceeded to secretly monitor the process to see which docs committee staffers were looking at. Can the executive branch spy on the legislative branch? More specifically, can an executive agency spy on its own oversight committee in Congress?

The CIA’s rebuttal to all this: Why beat up on us when the committee’s stealing documents?

The CIA disputed significant portions of the committee’s findings in its official response to the report, which it submitted in June, three months after the deadline set by the committee. The agency also disputes that it conducted an internal review of the detention and interrogation program, asserting that it only compiled summaries of documents provided to the committee and not an analytical report.

Several months after the CIA submitted its official response to the committee report, aides discovered in the database of top-secret documents at CIA headquarters a draft of an internal review ordered by former CIA Director Leon Panetta of the materials released to the panel, said the knowledgeable person.

They determined that it showed that the CIA leadership disputed report findings that they knew were corroborated by the so-called Panetta review, said the knowledgeable person.

The aides printed the material, walked out of CIA headquarters with it and took it to Capitol Hill, said the knowledgeable person.

In other words, the CIA challenged the Intel Committee’s findings on enhanced interrogation even though those findings were allegedly confirmed by its own internal Panetta-led review. They lied, flat out — if the committee is to be believed. Having stumbled across the review, and probably fearing that the document would be wiped from the database if they didn’t obtain hard proof immediately, the committee’s investigators evidently decided to break protocol and print out a hard copy of the smoking gun to take with them. And not without reason: Per McClatchy, White House officials are mystified as to why the Panetta review was included in the document database that was made available to committee staffers — which sounds like they fully intended to hide the review’s findings from the committee if they could have. Have we really reached the point in Obama’s counterterrorism evolution where he’s trying to cover up CIA malfeasance on enhanced interrogation from Democratic investigators?

Senators on Wednesday expressed alarm at explosive allegations that the CIA might have spied on their computers to keep tabs on their controversial review of Bush-era “enhanced interrogation” techniques…

“I’m assuming that’s it’s not true, but if it is true, it should be World War III in terms of Congress standing up for itself against the CIA, ” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told The Hill…

Sen. Mark Udall (Colo.) and two other Democrats on the Intelligence panel have criticized the CIA and its director, John Brennan, for blocking their efforts to declassify the 6,300-page investigation.

“The CIA tried to intimidate the Intelligence Committee, plain and simple,” Udall said. “I’m going to keep fighting like hell to make sure the CIA never dodges congressional oversight again.”

You know Obama’s in a jam when even Grahamnesty isn’t willing to back presidential power in a matter related to surveillance and counterterrorism. One thing that’s unclear to me in all this, though, is the precise timeline. Did the CIA somehow discover that staffers had stolen the Panetta review and then start monitoring their computer use at Langley? Or were they monitoring their computers all along and that’s how they discovered that the review had been accessed and printed? Might not matter legally, but it’ll matter for spin purposes now that this is a PR war.

Exit question: If the decision on whether to release the CIA report ends up coming to a vote of the entire Senate, which way will Republicans vote? The instinct, I assume, will be to protect the agency (and Bush) in aggressively fighting counterterrorism by voting not to release it, but now that there’s evidence that the agency (and Obama) might be behaving inappropriately in trying to suppress it, that points to voting yes. Which way?

Blowback

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WHO IN THE HELL IS LOOKING FOR THE TERRORISTS? Seems like the rat-eared wonder only is interested in domestic spying, undermining a co-equal branch of government, and killing Americans without benefit of due process.

WHO IN THE HELL IS LOOKING FOR THE TERRORISTS? Seems like the rat-eared wonder only is interested in domestic spying, undermining a co-equal branch of government, and killing Americans without benefit of due process.

So everything the CIA has is on these computers? And why is “print” an option. Folks, we better hope the next big hit on the U.S. is perpetrated by citizens since that appears to be the only people these idiots are watching.

WHO IN THE HELL IS LOOKING FOR THE TERRORISTS? Seems like the rat-eared wonder only is interested in domestic spying, undermining a co-equal branch of government, and killing Americans without benefit of due process.

Happy Nomad on March 6, 2014 at 11:29 AM

The attitude of liberals is that the only terrorists are conservatives. Actual terrorists overseas are just confused people who need it gently explained to them by wise, enlightened liberals that the US is their friend now.

How about the Boston Bombers with two heads up from Russia? I swear to Swanee, none of these people are going to be bringing the potato salad to the Mensa picnic but I don’t even know how they manage to find their way to work in the morning.

The CIA let secret documents get out of their HQ without going through the proper document trail for the tracking of generated documents?

And it is COMPLAINING?

Where is the security that is supposed to be tracking this stuff?

WTF is going on at the CIA if this sort of thing can happen? There is an entire set of security procedures for tracking hard copy generated documents… and that has collapsed if this is what they are complaining about.

The CIA can’t even do its basic job any more at the lowest of low levels.

And why are Senate staffers “breaking protocol”, also known as “the rules” to smuggle documents out that they no doubt see as politically charged but refuse to identify – “knowlegeable person” or not – and then standing on their f’ing pedestal accusing the CIA of misconduct because they got busted doing it?

$40 MILLION dollars spent on this horsesh*t AFTER the DOJ already declined to prosecute.

Considering the craptastic record this administration has racked up regarding intel leaks I’d bloody spy on them too. Children need supervision, and where this admin is concerned a good ass kicking along with a pyre.

What else did they walk out with? Is it ok to do that now as long as it suits your political purposes and you can accuse the CIA of breaking the faith by calling you out for breaking it first?

Wasn’t one of the most damning criticisms of Edward Snowden that he went to the press instead of going to Congress? If even Congress can’t go to Congress, I guess that whole argument goes straight down the crapper, no?

I want to point out that monitoring the CIA computers these staffers were using is not only a DUH moment, but likely required by cybersecurity guidelines and regulations. And you know what? That’s a good thing, since they actually caught someone violating the law as it pertains to access of classified information!

So everything the CIA has is on these computers? And why is “print” an option. Folks, we better hope the next big hit on the U.S. is perpetrated by citizens since that appears to be the only people these idiots are watching.

Cindy Munford on March 6, 2014 at 11:34 AM

That right there raised my BS flag. They get escorted into a secure room and are provided computers AT the CIA, and we are supposed to believe they could just print out hard-copy of highly classified material that the entire facility was built to contain and keep secure?

If you are a Super Secret Spy organization, and you have to give Congress (not known for keeping secrets) access to Super Secret documents – would you not provide computers that could only VIEW documents?

WHY would you provide PRINTERS in the same room where you are only supposed to VIEW documents?

It was hilarious when Cummings shouted “I’m tired of a one-sided hearing”…heh, heh…where is he when obama shreds the entire congress?…moronic fool, Cummings that is.

Schadenfreude on March 6, 2014 at 11:33 AM

And I was angered when he proclaimed that he was a member of congress of the United States of America. I know in his mind, he’s entitled to royal treatment. Although he may understand he represents 700,000 constituents, he doesn’t think he works FOR them. He is their better.

The CIA can’t even do its basic job any more at the lowest of low levels.

ajacksonian on March 6, 2014 at 11:52 AM

My question was who connected a printer to the computers provided to the oversight people? I figured they were put into some room that was carefully prepared with some computers for their use. Was a spare printer sitting in the corner that someone said “hey, let’s hook that up….who’s got a USB cable (or RS-232 or IEEE 1284 if it was a spare “old school” machine).

Yes, you are suppose to believe that, just like you believe that Sandy Berger walked out of the National Archives with the only copies of God know what Clinton documents to be lost to history forever. Which is worse, that they think we are stupid or that we think they are stupid?

The GOP needs to become the party of honest governess. If it means making Bush look bad, so be it. The GOP has embraced Sarah Palin, who also had no trouble ousting dishonest, corrupt Republicans. Who would she be today if Republicans took the “we can’t make x look bad” approach?

So everything the CIA has is on these computers? And why is “print” an option. Folks, we better hope the next big hit on the U.S. is perpetrated by citizens since that appears to be the only people these idiots are watching.

Cindy Munford on March 6, 2014 at 11:34 AM

That right there raised my BS flag. They get escorted into a secure room and are provided computers AT the CIA, and we are supposed to believe they could just print out hard-copy of highly classified material that the entire facility was built to contain and keep secure?

Mord on March 6, 2014 at 12:57 PM

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The Kneepad Media swallowed the:

“Snowden took hundredsthousandstens of thousands1.7 millionEVERYTHING tens of thousands of documents.” stories being fed to them.

Why would they gag on the idea of highly secured data on highly secured computers inside the highly secured CIA building happened to have a laser printer hooked to them?

You seem to be suggesting these are not highly trained professional fluffers journalists?!?

If these computers weren’t set up specifically for this event, they would have been connected to printers. Also, the staffers might have wanted hardcopies for examination (you ever looked at some of these things? they don’t necessarily translate well to viewing on a screen). Oh yes, the CIA is stupid for allowing it in this case, imho. But it wouldn’t be that unusual.

Yes, there are printers hooked to classified systems. Because you can’t pick up your computer and cart it to a meeting. (No, most of these are not laptops – thankfully.) Because some things you need to write on. Because some things you need a hard copy of.

The attitude of liberals is that the only terrorists are conservatives. Actual terrorists overseas are just confused people who need it gently explained to them by wise, enlightened liberals that the US is their friend now.

If these computers weren’t set up specifically for this event, they would have been connected to printers. Also, the staffers might have wanted hardcopies for examination (you ever looked at some of these things? they don’t necessarily translate well to viewing on a screen). Oh yes, the CIA is stupid for allowing it in this case, imho. But it wouldn’t be that unusual.

Yes, there are printers hooked to classified systems. Because you can’t pick up your computer and cart it to a meeting. (No, most of these are not laptops – thankfully.) Because some things you need to write on. Because some things you need a hard copy of.

GWB on March 6, 2014 at 2:35 PM

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I am completely astound by the lack of reading, research, thought and/or comprehension exhibited by people pushing an agenda in their comments.

Yes, secure systems DO have printers “linked” to them for people who have authorization for hardcopy.

The report in question is 6,300 pages (i.e. almost 13 reams of 500 sheets) which would require a LOT of printing – or did the Congressional folks somehow “just print the ‘good’ parts?

Or, far more likely, did a source in the CIA give the draft report to a Congressional staffer on an SD card?

Hint: Read below – it seems unlikely that the CIA would be requesting the Justice Department open an investigation into the actions of Democratic Congressional staffers if there wasn’t a LOT more going on. (Maybe, just maybe , Mr. Snowden’s cache of documents came from a Congressional staffer with clearance for the Verizon FISA court warrant.)

WASHINGTON — Congressional aides involved in preparing the Senate Intelligence Committee’s unreleased study of the CIA’s secret interrogation and detention program walked out of the spy agency’s fortress-like headquarters with classified documents that the CIA contended they weren’t authorized to have, McClatchy has learned.

After the CIA confronted the panel in January about the removal of the material last fall, panel staff concluded that the agency had monitored computers they’d been given to use in a high-security research room at the CIA campus in Langley, Va., a McClatchy investigation found.

It remained unclear Wednesday if the monitoring, the unauthorized removal of classified material or another matter were the subject of a recent CIA request to the Justice Department for an investigation into alleged malfeasance in connection with the committee’s top-secret study.

The documents removed from the agency included a draft of an internal CIA review that at least one lawmaker has publicly said showed that agency leaders misled the Intelligence Committee in disputing some of the committee report’s findings, according to a knowledgeable person who requested anonymity because of the matter’s extraordinary sensitivity.

In a combative statement issued Wednesday evening, CIA Director John Brennan chastised unidentified senators for making “spurious allegations about CIA actions that are wholly unsupported by the facts.”

“I am very confident that the appropriate authorities reviewing this matter will determine where wrongdoing, if any, occurred in either the executive branch or legislative branch,” he said in an apparent reference to the request for a Justice Department investigation. “Until then, I would encourage others to refrain from outbursts that do a disservice to the important relationship that needs to be maintained between intelligence officials and congressional overseers.”

The removal of the documents is the focus of an intense legal dispute between the CIA and its congressional overseers, said several people who also cited the matter’s sensitivity in asking to remain anonymous.

Some committee members regard the monitoring as a possible violation of the law and contend that their oversight powers give them the right to the documents that were removed. On the other hand, the CIA considers the removal as a massive security breach because the agency doesn’t believe that the committee had a right to those particular materials.

“Even if the agency is technically correct on the legalities, it’s a real asinine thing to pick a fight with your oversight committee like this,” said a U.S. official who was among those who spoke to McClatchy. “You’ve got to be asking yourself why the agency would be willing to take such a risk. The documents must be so damned loaded.”

White House officials have held at least one closed-door meeting with committee members about the monitoring and the removal of the documents, said the first knowledgeable person.

White House officials were trying to determine how the materials that were taken from CIA headquarters found their way into a database into which millions of pages of top-secret reports, emails and other documents were made available to panel staff after being vetted by CIA officials and contractors, said the knowledgeable person.

Being handed a disc or stick makes a lot more sense. Wouldn’t you think people being allowed access to these computers would be under audio and video surveillance? So presumably the exchange didn’t happen there.

Being handed a disc or stick makes a lot more sense. Wouldn’t you think people being allowed access to these computers would be under audio and video surveillance? So presumably the exchange didn’t happen there.

Cindy Munford on March 6, 2014 at 3:08 PM

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A micro-SD card is an intelligence agent’s perfect tool for receiving/distributing limited amounts of data via any of the widely known public techniques (e.g. brush pass, drop box or the UPS delivery of a box for someone not at that address – the UPS person brings in the package, the recepient pulls a micro-SD card from under a cardboard flap and hands back the package saying, “Must be a mistake, no one by that name here.” and UPS returns it to the Staples store where it was dropped off for delivery never to be claimed.)

I have NEVER accepted the stories PROVIDED by leaks from the SCOAMF administration (you know, the folks who wanted to indict a reporter for espionage?) painting Snowden as a genius who end ran ALL the security checks – including the ones on stand-alone sytems he DID NOT have access to from the NSA.

“Snowden took hundreds thousandstens of thousands1.7 millionEVERYTHING tens of thousands of documents.” was the SCOAMF administration ‘not letting a crisis go to waste’ by taking the politically embarrassing documents published in Snowden’s name and using him as the fall guy for a massive penetration/leak/mole of strategic & militarily important data.

The report in question is 6,300 pages (i.e. almost 13 reams of 500 sheets) which would require a LOT of printing – or did the Congressional folks somehow “just print the ‘good’ parts?

I didn’t see where it said they printed out the entire report (are you speaking of the Panetta report?). It said they printed out evidence showing the report contradicts CIA claims. If they *did* print out the entire report, wow. (Doesn’t negate anything I said.)

Or, far more likely, did a source in the CIA give the draft report to a Congressional staffer on an SD card?

If they did that, then someone needs to go to jail. No flash memory or USB thumb drives (or cameras or PDAs or any other storage device) is allowed to be hooked to a classified computer without a very express procedure for clearing it. Period. In the DoD you can’t even hook them to an unclassified computer.

Quite simply, the CIA doesn’t appear to have been in the wrong for monitoring their computers (as required by cybersecurity policies and guidelines) or for having printers hooked up (though they might be *stupid* for the latter). Other issues with the CIA – legal or moral or intelligence-related – are not at issue in my comments.

The report in question is 6,300 pages (i.e. almost 13 reams of 500 sheets) which would require a LOT of printing – or did the Congressional folks somehow “just print the ‘good’ parts?

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I didn’t see where it said they printed out the entire report (are you speaking of the Panetta report?). It said they printed out evidence showing the report contradicts CIA claims. If they *did* print out the entire report, wow. (Doesn’t negate anything I said.)

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A 6,300 page document would take HOW long to read?

On a monitor?

So the staffer could print “out evidence showing the report contradicts CIA claims.”

I will guarantee you that removal of hard copy of highly classified documents is just as illegal as removing it in ANY other format … but one he|| of a lot more difficult.

Or …

Or, far more likely, did a source in the CIA give the draft report to a Congressional staffer on an SD card?

Hint: Read below – it seems unlikely that the CIA would be requesting the Justice Department open an investigation into the actions of Democratic Congressional staffers if there wasn’t a LOT more going on. (Maybe, just maybe , Mr. Snowden’s cache of documents came from a Congressional staffer with clearance for the Verizon FISA court warrant.)

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This ISN’T about a CIA report that Democrats can wave screaming,

“BOOooossssshhhhh!”

And it isn’t about whether the “oversight” people with sufficient security classifications printed parts of a report.

This smells like the early days of Watergate when the “elite” started sorting out WHO would get fed to the sharks FIRST.

Probably longer than it takes to read it in hardcopy, based on human factors issues involved with vision and various media, as well as ergonomics involved with postures for each. What’s your point of asking this?

I will guarantee you that removal of hard copy of highly classified documents is just as illegal as removing it in ANY other format … but one he|| of a lot more difficult.

Where in the heck do I contradict that? However, my point was that even putting it on a flash drive or card is generally a violation, even if you don’t take it anywhere outside the secure facility.

This smells like the early days of Watergate when the “elite” started sorting out WHO would get fed to the sharks FIRST.

PolAgnostic on March 6, 2014 at 5:21 PM

I don’t disagree. I’m just trying to figure out why you’re arguing with me and casting aspersions on my character about this? I was simply pointing out that monitoring their own computers is what they’re supposed to be doing, and that having printers hooked up (while possibly dumb) wasn’t illegal or something you-just-don’t-do-because-it’s-classified. The staffers crying about those allegations are simply trying to “Look, squirrel!” to get the eyes off themselves, imho.

(Interesting discussion, by the way. Question to the experts: Does the CIA ordinarily let someone out of a secure room with any printed documents they didn’t bring in with them? Or do they uniquely trust Congressional staffers?)

PolAgnostic on March 6, 2014 at 5:21 PM
GWB on March 6, 2014 at 5:35 PM
AesopFan on March 6, 2014 at 6:57 PM
A quick recap. This is not the first time the Senate Intelligence committee staffers pulled this crap. Back in early 2002 they accused President Bush of various “War Crimes”. Long story short, they pulled the same stupid stunt and…..well, you know. Only that time, as part of a deal, the Senate shut the Committee down. The chairman (His name escapes me at the moment)D-VA took leave for “health reasons”. In typical D.C. fashion, the Democrats are trying to kill this before it gets out of hand. The Democratic Intelligence staff is some of the most racial left political hacks you will find on the Hill. And they are hated by all sides, with good reason. The one thing we know about the Obama administration, is how vicious they are when crossed. The CIA IG has passed this on Justice. The DCI will call this a counter-intelligence case,and will expect this to be investigated. I hope the Senator or Senators who pushed this, and the staffers who were stupid enough to go along with this, get good lawyers. They’re going to need them.

So everything the CIA has is on these computers? And why is “print” an option. Folks, we better hope the next big hit on the U.S. is perpetrated by citizens since that appears to be the only people these idiots are watching.

Cindy Munford on March 6, 2014 at 11:34 AM

Bingo. And soon now the Obama CIA and Obama NSA will declare Congress and the American people all spies and traitors.